


Of Tea and Dragons

by LiGi



Series: Gwenfest [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arthur trying to flirt, Awesome Gwen (Merlin), Clumsy Merlin (Merlin), Gwen-centric, Meet-Cute, Merlin is the best wingman, Week 2, gwenfest, i don't normally write modern aus, so I hope this is ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28801758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiGi/pseuds/LiGi
Summary: Written for Gwenfest! Week 2 - AU (also Week 3 - Meet cute!)Obligatory coffee (tea) shop modern AU.Gwen is just sitting minding her own business, when a clumsy boy and his devastatingly handsome friend knock her cup of tea all over her lap.
Relationships: Gwen & Merlin (Merlin), Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Gwenfest [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100393
Comments: 10
Kudos: 24
Collections: Gwen Fest





	Of Tea and Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> I don't normally write modern AUs so I went with the clichéd coffee shop idea. And then I found I really enjoyed writing these guys in a modern setting. Damn it.

Gwen sat back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other and switching her design tablet on. That was one of her favourite things about this tea shop; it had a nice buzzing atmosphere to make her feel warm and happy but still was peaceful enough that she could easily get on with her work.

It didn’t take long for her to become absorbed in the design she was drawing and forget her cup of tea and her scone.

A while later, a loud bright laugh made her look up just as two young men walked past her table towards the counter, one blond and very handsome, the other dark, smiley and gangly. The dark one seemed to be telling an amusing story, complete with wild hand gestures and exaggerated faces and just as he finished an elaborate bowing action, he tripped on his own feet and crashed into the corner of Gwen’s table.

The dainty little teacup of Earl Grey that Gwen had taken one sip of then decided was too hot and set aside – only to then forget about as she got sucked into her work – wobbled, tipped and toppled off the saucer.

She leapt up, holding her tablet aloft, as the tidal wave of tea cascaded over the edge of the table all over her lap. Luckily it wasn’t piping hot anymore, having been sat there for several minutes now.

“Oh my god! I am so sorry!”

The gangly boy grabbed a handful of napkins out of the little yellow painted flowerpot on the table, spreading them across the spill and mopping frantically. The thin paper napkins soaked through instantly and the boy succeeded in merely spreading the spilt tea further and causing it to dribble over the edge of the table onto his shoes.

The blond appeared at his shoulder again, smacking him in the face with a dishcloth he’d clearly just asked for from the waitress, who was blushing and giggling behind the counter.

“Do it properly, Merlin,” he drawled. Then his eyes softened and he reached for Gwen, his fingers just lightly touching her elbow. “Are you alright? You’re not burnt?”

“No, it’s fine. It was nearly cold anyway.” Gwen shook her head, trying to control the blush that was working its way up her neck. She could forgive the waitress; this devastatingly handsome guy clearly just had this effect on people.

“I’m so sorry for my friend’s ineptitude at walking in a straight line. He really is an idiot.”

The dark haired boy muttered a string of swearwords and insults under his breath, mopping up the tea a lot more effectively with the dishcloth.

“No!” Gwen said quickly, offering a smile to the clumsy boy. “It’s ok, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

She looked down at her jeans, the leg she’d had crossed over her lap was soaked through from crotch to knee ( _great_ , it looked like she’d wet herself), the other just lightly splashed across her thigh. The boy passed her the dishcloth, holding out a mostly dry corner.

“I am so sorry,” he said again, his ears had gone bright red. “Your scone has been drowned as well.” He held up the plate, the scone was indeed soggy, having supped up all the tea that had landed on it.

“Honestly, it’s ok, please, don’t worry,” she repeated, waving a hand. She tried to dab at the wet patch on her jeans but the dishcloth was far too damp to really help.

“Here,” the blond said, passing her a dry napkin instead and taking the dishcloth, tossing it again into the face of the other boy, who spluttered and glared before taking the cloth back to the waitress behind the counter.

“Thank you…” Gwen started, looking up from her jeans and tilting her head slightly.

“Arthur,” he supplied. “And that’s Merlin.” He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder at the clumsy dark haired boy, then held his hand out for hers.

“I’m Gwen. Guinevere really, but most people just call me Gwen.”

She shook his hand, his warm fingers giving hers a small squeeze before letting go.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Guinevere.”

Gwen’s blush spread across her cheeks as he said her full name, there was something sort of special about the way he said it. Her heart gave a little flutter.

Oh dear. Just what she needed, a crush on a stranger. But my goodness, he was definitely crush-worthy. Tall, fit, the softest looking hair Gwen had ever seen, and that _smile_ … just slightly crooked but perfect nevertheless.

“Let us buy you another cup of tea. Please?” Arthur said, then his eyes darted back down to her legs again. “Unless, of course you just want to leave…”

“I… well, I wish I had a change of clothes, but –” Gwen shrugged, rubbing uselessly at her wet thigh with the napkin.

“I know,” Arthur cut in, a broad smile crossing his face. “Tell us your size and Merlin will run down the road and buy you some new jeans.”

“I will, will I?” Merlin spluttered incredulously as he came back from the counter.

“Well, _I_ can’t! I know nothing about girls’ clothes.”

“You saying I do?”

Arthur just smirked and raised an eyebrow. Merlin smacked him on the shoulder.

“Oh fuck off. That was one time.”

“No, please,” Gwen cut in before the two of them started arguing. “I can’t expect you to buy me clothes!”

“Why not?” Arthur said at the same time as Merlin said, “He’s loaded.”

“No. Honestly, it’s fine, these will dry soon enough.” She waved the napkin around uselessly.

“Well, can I at least get you the tea?” Arthur gave her a soft smile, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket.

“And another scone?” Merlin chipped in with a grin.

Gwen debated saying no and just going home to change, but she had been looking forward to her scone – this tea shop did the best scones in all of Warwick – all day, and these boys seemed nice. She glanced at the time on her tablet; she still had twenty minutes before she needed to get to the meeting with Sefa. Making her mind up she smiled and nodded.

“That would be lovely, thank you.”

“Excellent.” Arthur nodded decisively. “What tea would you like, Guinevere?”

“Earl Grey, please.”

He opened his wallet and slid a gold credit card out, holding it up towards Merlin between his first and second fingers. Merlin took the card and bounced over to the counter.

“Do you always treat him like a servant?” Gwen said before she could stop herself then clapped a hand over her mouth.

Arthur just let out a bark of laughter. “He’s my PA, so yeah,” he said casually with another laugh. Gwen frowned and Arthur immediately looked a little more serious. “He’s also my best friend. I really don’t know what I’d do without him.” He glanced over his shoulder at Merlin and his expression softened. Then he turned back to Gwen and whispered, “Don’t tell him I said that.”

This man was an enigma, Gwen thought. Friendly but self-centred. Arrogant but caring. Part of her was annoyed by him, but part of her just wanted to get to know him better. She watched him as he gently slid the strap of her handbag off the back of the chair she had been sitting on and held out a hand to guide her over to a different table.

He even pulled the chair out for her.

“Thank you,” Gwen said sitting down and dumping her drawing tablet on the nice dry table in front of her.

Arthur sat opposite her, pushing the third chair out with his foot when Merlin came back over with a tray leaden with dinky teapots and plates of scones. He plonked it onto the table and dropped into the seat.

“Here you are… oh –” He frowned at Gwen. “He introduced himself while I was over there didn’t he? So I don’t know your name. Sorry, I’m Merlin.”

“Gwen.”

“Lovely.” Merlin’s grin was infectious, Gwen couldn’t help smiling with him, and she noticed Arthur did as well. “Here you are, Gwen.” He put the teapot, teacup and scone in front of her.

“Thank you, Merlin.”

They were all silent for a few minutes as they each poured their tea. Arthur had English Breakfast tea, which he took builders’ strength and dumped two spoons of sugar in as well, the spoon clinking on the side of the fine bone china teacup as he stirred. Merlin tutted.

“He has no sophistication, the prat,” he stage whispered to Gwen, rolling his eyes as he carefully poured out his own Black Dragon Oolong.

“You only like that because it’s got the word dragon in the name,” Arthur rebutted.

“And it tastes nice,” Merlin argued.

“Tastes weird,” Arthur muttered. “Not a good old English cuppa like this.”

“Whatever you say, _prat_ ,” Merlin said sarcastically.

Before Gwen could even get a word in they began arguing about whether the jam or the clotted cream went on the scone first. It was clearly an old argument, they were shooting off insults and counter responses so fast as they prepared their scones, it was almost as if they had been rehearsed.

Gwen carefully cut her scone in half, put jam then cream on one half and cream then jam on the other, noting how their eyes flicked to her plate, both ready to use her as an example of the correct way to do it. Merlin laughed when he saw what she’d done and Arthur looked vaguely impressed.

“Very diplomatic,” he commented, giving her a crooked smile.

“Well you don’t need me to fuel this argument any more.” Gwen laughed, wagging a finger between the two of them.

“Sorry, he just feels the constant need to be right all the time,” Merlin said,

“Shut up, Merlin,” Arthur snapped. “Let’s change the subject, shall we?”

Merlin burst into laughter, leaning back in his chair, looking pleased with himself for having pushed all of Arthur’s buttons. Arthur ignored him and turned his chair slightly so his back was to Merlin. Gwen pressed her lips together to hold back the giggle that wanted to bubble from her.

“So, are you an artist?” Arthur asked, tapping one finger on Gwen’s drawing tablet that was sitting in the middle of the table.

“I’m a costume designer for a fantasy TV show.”

“Nice. Anything we would have heard of?”

“ _A Land of Myth.”_

“Really?!”

Arthur groaned as Merlin dropped his scone back to his plate and started bouncing in his chair.

“That’s my favourite show!” Merlin crowed, waving his hands around enthusiastically. “The plot twists are incredible. And the _dragons_! The scene in episode four when the dragons all swooped into the castle… Oh my god, I’ve watched that episode about five times already! And your costume designs are absolutely stunning, seriously, the most beautiful clothes on telly. Do you do all of the characters?”

Gwen could feel her cheeks burning, her smile threatening to split her face in half.

“Yes, me and another girl, Sefa, do all of them. Do you want see what I’m working on now?” she offered.

Merlin gasped, his eyes going wide and he shuffled his chair around closer to hers. “Could I?” He sounded like a child that had just been told they were going to meet Father Christmas. “Oh please!”

Gwen grinned and unlocked the screen of her tablet. She turned it towards him, showing the purple and blue silk gown she had been sketching out.

“This is a new design for Lady Le Fay.”

“Oh Christ,” Arthur said, dropping his head into his hands. “It just gets worse.”

“Excuse me?” Gwen frowned, not sure whether to be offended. She was about to say something about how rude he was being but Merlin put a hand over her hand on the table before she could, no doubt sensing the way she had reacted to Arthur’s complaint.

“Ignore him,” he said firmly, giving Arthur a kick under the table. “He just doesn’t like talking about Lady Le Fay because she’s played by his sister.”

Gwen’s mouth dropped open. “Morgana Pendragon is your _sister_?”

“ _Half_ sister,” Arthur corrected, his cheeks had turned red now.

“Small world, huh?” Merlin said with a grin.

Gwen nodded, her mind whirring as she tried to remember if Morgana had ever mentioned anything about her family while with Gwen and Sefa in the costume department. Not much, all Gwen knew was that she lived with her half-sister and she didn’t like spending time with her dad seeing as he was so well known and… Gwen nearly dropped the bit of scone she was holding.

This gorgeous boy sitting opposite her was Uther Pendragon’s son…. Oh my goodness, she was having tea and scones in a tiny backstreet tea shop in Warwick with the Prime Minister’s son!

Merlin was smirking, he had obviously seen the moment of realisation cross her face. Arthur let his hands slip off his face and back down to his lap, lifting his head slightly and peering up at her. He looked defensive, probably worried about her reaction. There were a lot of things she could say about the Prime Minister, none of them particularly complimentary, but she didn’t want to be rude to this obviously fairly conflicted boy, just because of who his father was so she decided to say nothing. To just pretend she hadn’t made the connection.

“So are you up here visiting Morgana?” she asked instead.

“Just needed to get out of London for a while,” Arthur muttered, his jaw clenching. Gwen found herself feeling rather sorry for him and at least she could now see a reason for his slightly unsavoury attitude.

“She showed us around the castle this morning,” Merlin put in, taking over the conversation again as Arthur frowned out of the window sulkily.

“Gorgeous castle, isn’t it?” Gwen smiled and put her inquisitive thoughts about Arthur to the back of her mind so she could focus on the conversation with Merlin.

“Amazing. Although it just doesn’t look the same without the dragons sleeping up on the battlements.”

Gwen laughed.

“He has a thing about dragons,” Arthur put in, taking a large swig of his tea and drawing himself back into the conversation.

“I love them –” Merlin said through a mouthful of scone.

“You’re obsessed with them.”

Merlin swallowed and nodded. “Well yes, maybe a bit. But, come on, who wouldn’t be?”

Arthur turned to Gwen, rolling his eyes conspiratorially.

“I swear that’s the only reason he interviewed for the job as my PA. Because he likes my surname.”

“It is a good surname,” Gwen said with a chuckle.

“There’s a chat up line like this, you know. I probably shouldn’t –” Arthur started, giving Gwen a crooked grin, his eyes glinting.

“Oh dear god…” Merlin let his forehead hit the table, rattling the teacups on their saucers.

“If you like my surname, you should share it with me?” Arthur said with a smirk.

She snorted, not the most ladylike laugh, and covered her mouth with her hand. She had to admit though, her stomach did a pleasant little flip as her ridiculous mind conjured an image of her in a white dress and Arthur in a suit standing in front of a church. She’d only just met the guy for goodness sake.

“How about, did you fall from heaven because you look like an angel?” he added.

Gwen clutched her side as she laughed.

“Please stop,” Merlin grumbled, clearly trying not to laugh as well.

Arthur chuckled, his hand resting on the table beside Gwen’s. It was so consciously casual that Gwen knew there was no way he had done it by accident. She was just about to let her little finger innocently brush against his when the alarm on her tablet went off making her jump. Damn it.

“Ugh. Sorry,” she said, turning the alarm off. Arthur had flinched at the sound, his face red and his hand guiltily shooting back across the table to rest in his lap. “I have to get to a meeting with the rest of from the costume department.”

Arthur let out a small disappointed noise. Gwen fought a smile. She swigged the last mouthful of tea from her cup and stood up.

“Thank you so much for the tea though,” she said, beaming at Arthur and Merlin. “It was really nice meeting you.”

Arthur leapt up from his chair, holding his hand out to her. She took it and he gave her fingers another squeeze, holding on a smidgen longer than necessary.

“It was an absolute pleasure meeting you,” he said warmly, his beautiful bright blue eyes gazing intently at hers.

Merlin jumped up from his seat as well, pulling her attention from Arthur and shaking her hand enthusiastically. She laughed.

“I…uh…” Arthur started, blushing again and looking a little lost for words. He glanced down at her thighs. “At least your jeans are nearly dry now.” She looked down as well.

“Yeah, they are.” She tried not to let her gaze linger on him too much as she slid her tablet into her handbag and swung the bag over her shoulder. “Thank you again.” She wiggled her fingers in a little wave and made her way to the door, almost reluctantly.

Once she was outside and heading back towards the studio offices she sighed, wishing she didn’t have the design meeting with Sefa. She realised that she wanted to stay with the boys. She wanted to get to know Arthur better. She should have given him her number…

Damn it…

Could she just go back in and give it to him? Would that look weird and a bit desperate? She chewed her lip as she walked, cursing herself for not thinking of it. Perhaps she could ask Morgana for her brother’s number?

She’d only made it a few yards down the street before a shout caught her attention.

“Gwen!” She turned, Merlin was hurrying towards her. He came to a stop in front of her, almost tripping in his haste, and gave her a beaming smile. “It was really lovely to meet you.”

“You too.”

“Sorry Arthur was a bit grumpy. He’s had a pretty shit week with his dad… I assume you worked out…?”

Gwen nodded. “The PM? Is that really his dad?”

“Unfortunately,” he said through gritted teeth. “I didn’t vote for him,” he added wryly.

Gwen stifled a giggle. She hadn’t either.

“Anyway,” Merlin said, pulling a small red business card from his jacket pocket. “Please don’t let his bad mood spoil your impression of him. Of course, he is always a prat, but he _can_ be a lovely guy too and he asked me to give you this.”

He passed her the card. It said ‘Arthur Pendragon. Public Relations Consultant. Pendragon Enterprises’ and had a phone number which had been crossed out and another written beneath it.

“That’s his _personal_ mobile number.” Merlin pointed to the hand written number. “If you wanted it.” He shrugged. “And if you _don’t_ like him, just tell Morgana about this and she will tease him good and proper about it, I promise.”

“No, I um…” She blushed and looked down at the card again. “I wouldn’t mind getting to know him a bit better.”

“Oh well that’s a relief. He was worried he’d put you off.”

Gwen gave a little shrug, tilting her head to the side. “No… he didn’t.”

“He is terribly bad at talking to girls.” Merlin grinned cheekily. “It’s very pathetic really.”

“So he gets you do it for him?” Gwen surmised.

He shrugged. “That’s what a PA is for, right?”

“Well, thank you, Merlin.” She put a hand on his arm.

“You’re welcome.” He flashed her another grin. “And hey, if you want to do anything for me in return, could you make it so all of Sir DuLac’s costumes are shirtless next series?” He gave her a ridiculously over the top salacious wink.

She burst into unexpected giggles. Yes, she knew exactly where he was coming from, Sir DuLac was a particularly good character in the show and it was certainly helped by how incredibly attractive the actor Lance Lott was.

“I’ll try my best,” she said with a chuckle.

Merlin winked again before giving her a wave and bounding off back towards the teashop.

Gwen looked back to the teashop window and smiled when she spotted Arthur, anxiously watching her as Merlin re-entered the shop. She smiled, held up the business card and mouthed, ‘thank you’.

He blushed and nodded, then quickly looked away into his cup of tea. Merlin flopped down in the chair beside him and clapped him on the back with a grin.

Gwen turned away and started walking down the street, gazing down at the small red card, a slightly giddy smile on her face.

It was a long time since she’d last been on a date. A couple of months ago with her brother’s best friend Gwaine, and although he was incredibly charming and undeniably gorgeous, they hadn’t really clicked romantically and had stayed just friends.

It would be nice to try something a little different. And another chance to figure out the enigma that was Arthur Pendragon could only be a good thing. She pictured the gorgeous smile he had given her as he’d asked for her name… then slid the business card into her handbag with a grin.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be mostly Gwen and Arthur, but Merlin sort of took the spotlight a little bit... oh well!


End file.
